Ashes of Time
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Ashes of Time (東邪西毒; pinyin: Dōngxié Xīdú, literally "The Heretic East and the Toxic West") is a 1994 wuxia film based loosely on two characters from a Louis Cha novel, directed by Wong Kar-wai.
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Cast includes
- Brigitte Lin
- Leslie Cheung
- Maggie Cheung
- Jacky Cheung
- Tony Leung Chiu Wai
- Tony Leung Ka Fai
- Li Bai
- Carina Lau
- Charlie Yeung
Plot
In this film, set in ancient times in China, Leslie Cheung plays an agent, Ouyang Feng, hiring famous bounty-hunters. His character is portrayed as a fallen swordsman driven by greed and heartless to both friend and foe. He was perpetually being spiteful of love as his own love history was not nearly so beautiful. His bounty-hunters came and went as was narrated by Ouyang Feng himself as based on the Tung Shu predictions.
In essence, he was a loner with little love, but the bounty hunters that worked for Ouyang Feng, like 'Blind Swordsman' (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and another of his best fighters, Hung Chi (Jacky Cheung), discovered the intangible secret of true love while Ouyang retained his attitude towards his fighters and the precious lessons that they have taught. However, the thread that runs through the entire narrative has clearly the spirit of refusal in the sense that one should reject another before he gets to be rejected in the future. To illustrate, nearly every character in this story has resorted to being selfish and malignant in order to prevent being rejected by others, be it in love or in comradeship as their individual hardships have moulded their attitude turning them into heartless and cold individuals in order to survive in the uncompromising desert where the story is set.
It has many moral implications but is less evident since the main character is Ouyang himself and most of the narration would unquestionably be centred on him.